Mother chains herself to steering wheel for two days in protest at clamping

Last updated at 09:59 02 November 2007

An angry shopper chained herself to the inside of her car for two days in protest at the vehicle being clamped.

Lisa Martin, a 33-year-old mother of three, spent a night in the car after discovering on Wednesday afternoon that it had been clamped during a shopping trip to Pontypool, south Wales.

The garden worker was getting ready to bed down for a further uncomfortable night in her B-registration Hyundai Accent yesterday when an anonymous donor came forward to pay the fine.

She had planned to hold out until the clamping firm apologised but finally gave up on Friday morning, after friends persuaded her she could continue the protest from home.

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Ms Martin, of Sebastopol, south Wales, said: "The clamping company had the cheek to take the clamp off and tell me a local businessman had paid the fine because he was disgusted with the way I was representing Pontypool.

"I'm not happy about it, and I was quite prepared to stay in the car. I would like this gentleman to come forward and tell me to my face that he's disgusted with me."

Ms Martin, who claims she was intimidated by the wheel-clamping company, said she left the car park at 11pm last night and then made a complaint to police about the way she had been treated.

She said she slept for only one hour last night, but still plans to return to the car park today with flyers and leaflets to continue her campaign against the alleged injustice.

The mother said she had no idea she had parked in a restricted service bay on Wednesday afternoon as the two warning notices were placed more than 20ft up.

She claimed she agreed to pay the £150 release fee demanded by wheel-clamping company CPS Enforcement but asked the firm to wait until the evening, when her boyfriend could bring the cash.

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Ms Martin said her one-woman protest began when this request was turned down. She initially vowed to stay in the car for however long it took to get an apology from CPS Enforcement and have her fine waived.

Childcare had been arranged for her children Nathan, 16, Kerys, 12, and 10-year-old Kieron, and she was using carrier bags as a make-shift toilet inside the car.

But Ricky Oliver, the training and development director for CPS Enforcement who fined Ms Martin, denied his company had intimidated her, although he did say a £400 release fee had to be paid.

He said yesterday: "Apparently she is a mother of three kids - she should grow up and go home to her kids.

"We are quite happy to enter into a sensible agreement with her but up until now, we haven't been able to do that because she screams abuse at us whenever we go near her.

"As far as we are concerned, she is a disruptive to the smooth running of the service yard. She is a trespasser and she shouldn't be there and shouldn't have been there in the first place.

"She should have paid the release fee and gone down the route of an appeal rather than staging her protest."

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A man tried to cut the wheel clamp off the car on Wednesday night but was stopped by police and given an £80 fixed penalty notice for criminal damage.

A spokeswoman for Gwent Police said: "He was not arrested but was given an £80 fixed penalty notice for criminal damage."

Ms Martin said during her in-car protest: "I honestly feel that if I got out of my car and just walked away, I wouldn't sleep again. I feel it is absolutely atrocious that these companies think they can treat you how they like."

She claimed she was told that every time a tow truck was sent out to pick up her car, a further £250 call out fee was added to her bill.

"It is just scare-mongering and another way of trying to intimidate me. My car isn't worth the fine but I'm sitting here out of sheer principle," she said.